Buddhism, in its Connexion with Brāhmanism and Hindūism, and in its Contrast with Christianity, by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, K.C.I.E., Second Edition, (John Murray, London 1890)
Pages 134-135. ‘He said of himself (Mahā-vagga 1.6,8),— ‘I am the all-subduer (sabbābhibhū); the all-wise; I have no stains; through myself I possess knowledge; I have no rival (patipuggalo); I am the chief Arhat — the highest teacher; I alone am the absolutely wise (Sambuddha); I am the Conqueror (Jina); all the fires of desire are quenched (sītibhūto) in me; I have Nirvāna (nibbuto).’
Page 135 (foot-note). ‘In fact Gautama remained a Bodhi-sattva until he was thirty-four or thirty-five, when he attained perfect enlightenment and Buddhahood.’
Page 126. ‘1. Kill not any living thing. 2. Steal not. 3. Commit not adultery. 4. Lie not. 5. Drink not strong drink….6. Eat no food except at stated times. 7. Use no wreaths, ornaments, or perfumes. 8. Use no high or broad bed, but only a mat on the ground. 9. Abstain from dancing, singing, music, and worldly spectacles. 10. Own no gold, or silver of any kind, and accept none. (Mahā-vagga 1.56). [This Buddhist Dasa-sīla may be contrasted with the Mosaic Decalogue.]’
Pages 45-47. ‘The Buddha’s early disciples were not poor men; for the sixth to be admitted to the Sangha was a high-born youth named Yasa…..
In sending forth these sixty monks to proclaim his own gospel of deliverance, he addressed them thus:-
‘I am delivered from all fetters (p.127), human and divine. You too, O monks, are freed from the same fetters. Go forth and wander everywhere, out of compassion for the world and for the welfare of gods and men. Go forth, one by one, in different directions. Preach the doctrine (Dharmam), salutary (kalyāna) in its beginning, middle, and end, in its spirit (artha) and in its letter (vyañjana). Proclaim a life of perfect restraint, chastity, and celibacy (brahmaćariyam). I will go also to preach this doctrine’ (Mahā-vagga I. II. I).
When his monk-missionaries had departed, Gautama himself followed, though not till Māra (p. 41) had again tempted him. Quitting Benares he journeyed back to Uruvelā, near Gayā. There he first converted thirty rich young men and then one thousand orthodox Brāhmans, led by Kāsyapa and his two brothers, who maintained a sacred fire (‘Brāhmanism,’ p. 364). The fire-chamber was haunted by a fiery snake-demon; so Buddha asked to accupy the room for a night, fought the serpent and confined him in his own alms-bowl. Next he worked other miracles (said to have been 3500 in number)….
To them on a hill Gayāsīsa (Brahma-yoni), near Gayā, he preached his ‘burning’ fire-sermon (Mahā-vo I. 21): ‘Everything, O monks, is burning (ādittam=ādīptam). The eye is burning; visible things are burning. The sensation produced by contact with visible things is burning—burning with fire of lust (desire), enmity and delusion (rāgagginā dosagginā mohagginā), with birth, decay (jarayā), death, grief, lamentation, pain, dejection (domanassehi), and despair (upāyāsehi). The ear is burning; sounds are burning; the nośe is burning, odours are burning; the tongue is burning, tastes are burning; the body is burning, objects of sense are burning. The mind is burning; thoughts are burning. All are burning with the fire of passions and lusts. Observing this, O monks, a wise and noble disciple becomes weary of (or disgusted with) the eye, weary of visible things, weary of the ear, weary of sounds, weary of odours, weary of tastes, weary of the body, weary of the mind. Becoming weary, he frees himself from passions and lusts. When free, he realizes that his object is accomplished, that he has lived a life of restraint and chastity (brahmaćariyam), that re-birth is ended.’
It is said that this fire-sermon — which is a key to the meaning of Nirvāna — was suggested by the sight of a conflagration. It was Gautama’s custom to impress ideas on his hearers by pointing to visible objects. He compares all life to a flame; and the gist of the discourse is the duty of extinguishing the fire of lusts, and with it the fire of all existence, and importance of monkhood and celibacy for the attainment of this end.
Contrast in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount the words addressed to the multitude (not to monks), ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’
The Buddha and his followers next proceeded to Rājagriha.’